Auckland-based SaaS platform Thematic today announced it has raised US$1.22 million (NZD$1.75 million/AUD$1.7 million) in seed funding to continue its international growth, with a focus on the US and European markets.

The round was led by Australian venture capital firm Airtree Ventures. Other investors that went in on the round were accelerator programme Y Combinator, from which Thematic graduated earlier this year, well known US-based investors Rowan Simpson and Chad Byers, and a handful of other angel investors based out of San Francisco.

“Our mission is to empower brands to understand and delight their customers through deep insights,” said Thematic CEO and cofounder, Dr Alyona Medelyan.

“It has been an incredible journey so far and we’re only getting started.”

The company uses its AI technology to analyse customer feedback for companies and then detect emerging themes. This informs users of the platform on how they can increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Already large brands such as Vodafone, Air New Zealand, Stripe, and Manpower Group are using the platform, with the startup boasting large corporate users in six different countries. To continue this growth, part of the funding will be used to set up a United States office and hire the company’s first sales people.

“Our technology helps businesses to understand what their customers are saying at scale.It’s one thing to collect an NPS score, it’s a whole different ball game to deeply understand the specific issues and themes driving that score,” said Medelyan.

“Ignoring written customer feedback because there is too much of it to process is a huge missed opportunity. The customers are telling companies what’s wrong and what they actually want, but nobody is listening.”